Paul Golin had what he calls a “heart-health episode” a couple years ago. “And I knew one of the contributing factors was my sedentary lifestyle,” he recalls.

As associate director of the Jewish Outreach Institute in Lower Manhattan, Golin didn’t exactly need to bounce around much.

“I sat in front of a computer all day,” he says. “I didn’t move.”

Golin’s suspicion that his stationary ways were inflicting harm was well-founded. In fact, a growing body of research suggests the effects of sitting all day are worse than previously realized, offering desk workers new reasons for alarm.

Last year, researchers at the Mayo Clinic reported that those who sat at work were much more likely to face maladies such as heart disease, high cholesterol, diabetes and thrombosis — plus, they tended to be the most overweight. And the American Cancer Society published results of a 14-year study that concluded that the more time people log in a chair, the greater their risk of early death — even if they exercise regularly.

But Golin found a way to keep his desk job without having to sit at it. Poke your head into his office and you’ll find him standing behind his desk — on a treadmill. Most of the day, Golin stands on the motorized belt; for an hour or so, he walks on it, strolling about one mph.

Other workers are also getting the message — and are changing their sedentary habits, in ways big and small. While they may not all have the option of installing a TrekDesk (Golin had his own office, a spare $900 and “an understanding boss”), the desk set is embracing the shark credo: Keep moving or die.

“Our bodies were meant to move,” says Dr. Greg Lutz, physiatrist-in-chief emeritus at New York City’s Hospital for Special Surgery, who sees a steady stream of desk jockeys suffering from disc problems, nerve damage and other ailments. disc problems. “We underestimate the effects of sitting in our society.”

Lutz cites an 80 percent increase in cardiovascular disease in people who sit more than four hours a day, as well as “higher incidence of obesity, Type 2 diabetes and lower-back pain.”

“Your body begins to learn those biomechanics,” he says. “It becomes hard for your muscles to know any other way. That leads to tightness and imbalances.”

What to do? First, you need to rethink much of what you’ve taken for granted.

“You have to look at sitting,” says Manny Halpern, an ergonomist at NYU’s Langone Medical Center. “We sit in order to do something. So you really need to examine whether you need to do what you do sitting. Maybe you can do your job standing if you have an adjustable desk.”

That very thought occurred to Karen Myers, a project manager for Diversified Storage Solutions outside Philadelphia. While Myers is up on all the wellness benefits of a sit/stand workstation (“I’m one of those people who read all the health reports,” she says), it was a car accident and the resulting back problems that pushed her to pick up a Genesis adjustable desk.

“For me to sit long periods of time — it’s difficult,” she says. So, throughout the day, Myers alternates her position between sitting and standing.

“When my back hurts, I just push a button, and the desk goes up. It’s wonderful,” she says.

For others, fighting the scourge of slugdom is as simple as making a point of getting up and moving at regular intervals. Lutz suggests doing so for two or three minutes every half-hour.

As not everyone has the inclination or discipline to do that on their own, some employers and office designers are looking for ways to encourage workers to literally get off their asses.

Says Connie Connors, CEO of the search-marketing firm HitTail.com, “I was a professional dancer, so my whole construct around business was to be active — that active bodies mean active brains. There’s something incredibly dysfunctional about sitting and texting your colleague in the next office.”

To create an office as dynamic as her ethos, Connors enlisted the services of architect Lee Skolnick, whose open-plan designs discourage employees from remaining stagnant by creating “touchdown areas” that give them a reason to get out of their chairs. The offices he designed for Connors featured mini-conference areas called telephone rooms, where workers could make private calls, as well as meeting places with tall tables and stools.

“We encourage people to get out of their chairs, move around, talk to somebody, have an impromptu meeting,” says Skolnick. “Then you go back and process what you’ve learned.”

Other employers are tapping folks like Tevis Rose Trower of Balance Integration Corp., an wellness consultant who says her clients are increasingly concerned about the effects of over-sitting. To help workers untwist, her firm offers ergonomic workshops and sometimes they “literally go desk to desk to troubleshoot every single employee.”

For these ergonomic pioneers, the reward is: They feel pretty good! Now that Myers’ desk allows her to alternate her position, “I sleep better at night,” she declares. “I guess I hadn’t been getting enough exercise.”

Connors recently shuttered her office and now works at home, but she deems her efforts a success, saying her office layouts helped “invigorate” her employees.

“At one point, nobody was overweight, nobody smoked, everybody worked out,” she says. “It just helped spark a culture of action.”

As for Golin and his TrekDesk, while you won’t find him trying to write by hand while moving, he long ago adjusted to standing and walking in his office.

“I absolutely feel like I’m doing something much better for my health than when I sat all day,” he says. “And I feel more awake in the afternoon.”

And most importantly: Golin has yet to fall off the thing.

You don’t need a custom desk setup or office redesign to get you moving more. Here are some tips:

* Put tools out of grasp: “You don’t need to be able to get to your printer from your chair.” says ergonomist Manny Halpern. “You can get up.”

* Become alarmed: Set a reminder to get up from your chair at regular intervals, suggests trainer Sean Hyson. He suggests NakedAlarmClock.com, which lets you schedule a recurring prompt on your PC. “Walk around, stretch, do pushups if your co-workers won’t think you’re crazy,” he says.

* Stand and deliver: Just because you sit all day doesn’t mean you have to. Opening mail? Talking on the phone? “Just stand up,” says Halpern.